Baseball Loses Heartbreaker In Fourteen Innings, 6-5

Santa Barbara, Calif. -
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo defeated UC Santa Barbara in a extra inning heartbreaker, 6-5. The fourteen hour game that lasted over five hours was only the first of this three game conference series.

Cal Poly broke open the extra inning battle in the top of the fourteenth, scoring on a passed ball after loading the bases on back-to-back singles and an intentional walk.

The Gauchos tried to spark a rally in the bottom of the inning, but were unable to complete the comback.

Cal Poly first baseman Kyle Wilson hit a line drive home run off Matt Vasquez to give the Mustangs an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning.

The Mustangs manufactured two more runs in the next couple innings to increase their lead over the Gauchos, 3-0. Wilson scored on an RBI groundout by Cory Taillon in the top of the fourth inning and, and Sam Herbert scored on a sacrifice fly by Pat Breen in the fifth.

Nic Rodriguez, Josh McCanne, and Matt Wilkerson lashed out three-straight singles to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning. Josh Kougal then enduced Chris Malec to ground into a double play leaving runners at second and third with two outs. The Gauchos stranded both runners as Matt Stevens would bounce out to end the inning.

UCSB loaded the bases for the second consecutive inning to start the top of the seventh inning. This time the Gauchos were not denied, exploding for five runs in the inning on an RBI groundout by Nate Sutton and back-to-back two run singles by Wilkerson and Malec.

Cal Poly answered UCSB's surge with one run in the top of the eighth to even the score, 5-5.

Designated hitter Nic Rodriguez reached first after being hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. Josh McCanne then sacrificed pinch runner Gabe Mann into scoring position. After a Matt Wilkerson fly out, Cal Poly intentionally walked Chris Malec in order to face Matt Emerick. The Mustang's strategy payed off as Emerick eventually grounded out to end the inning.

Dennis LeDuc earned the victory for the Mustangs going eight innings of relief and pitching a total of 137 pitches.

The Gauchos and Mustangs square off at 1:00pm on Saturday for the second game of this three game conference series.